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Diversity in the workplace?

Has anyone experienced diversity in there work field? If so, what happened? Reason I ask, I have a school project about diversity in the workplace? And I need some assistance. So, all help is greatly appreciated it.

2. As financial controller of a small pharmaceutical company I changed the roller towels in the ladies toilets.......the guy who put them up must have been my height

3. Product tasting (patient acceptance) at same company.......... SOBs didn't tell me they were laxatives, and it was live ammunition! You can guess what happened!

4. As IT systems development and support manager at a power tool manufacturers: managing the stocktakes and preparing the annual corporate tax return. OK I had the right background, but not an IT function?

5. At a major electrical/electronics retail chain,; helping marketing department with product reviews etc, and checking marketing questionnaires and surveys. That actually made sense, as a lot of the products were "big boys toys" and IT staff were considered to be technologically discriminating or whatever.

6. At same retailer: "customer satisfaction surveys"...........you got a list of customer phone numbers and rang them to see if they had had an enjoyable retail experience

7. At this time I was also lecturing 2 nights a week at a local technical college......"building economics and finance" in the faculty of construction. OK, not the same employer but it was diverse (and 70 bucks an hour ).

8. Various stints of helping out on the stand at trade exhibitions.

9. Refurbishing and sanitising old PCs to be sold for charity. Not realy a project manager's job.

10. A variety of not strictly related to work courses such as firefighting, fire prevention and explosives.

At my primary job it is required that all employees attend diversity training.

I have been kicked out of each class.

The first time a woman was trying to explain how minorities and women are treated differently in our society. We were then asked to think of other groups that were also discriminated against.

People answered Gay's, Physically Challenged, etc. As I thought of it I discovered that my programing buddy sitting next to me was the only person in the room that would not fall into any of the criteria given us to determine discrimination.

I raised my hand and said:

"Everyone in this company except for Scott".

When asked to explain I answered:

"Scott is a 27 year old, single, white, healthy, heterosexual male. He is college educated, paid his own way through college, does not have a portfolio or home.

He owns his own car, makes a better than average salary and currently does not have a girl friend.

This means that Scott gets no tax credits, cannot apply for welfare, social assistance, tax breaks. He works hard and reaps the benefit of his work. Has no one to blame for his station in life - and if he did, there would be no support groups at the Y or anywhere else that could help him.

So - to summarize, Scott is that MAN that is keeping all of us down"

I was asked to leave...

Next time I'm in the class we are learning about racism.

After the class we were asked to describe someone of another race. I raised my hand and pointed to one of the factory workers and said:

"Jim is the short, black dude that works in the factory" And Shaniqua (sp?) is the Hot black chick Jim is dating".

I was told that I needed to refer to the two individuals as African Americans and that Hot Chick was unacceptable reference.

I told the instructor that I did not mean to offend; but in my defense Shaniqua is totally hot. And that I found it extremely pretentious to assume ones citizenship and origin of birth based solely on the color of their skin. But if the premise that both Jim and his girlfriend were born in the U.S. If they get married and move to Canada, do we now have to refer to them as African Canadians?

Again I was asked to leave. I don't have to do diversity training any more.

The word is never used in that context over here in the UK. It always means what you do at work, rather than who or what your co-workers might be.

In supervisory and management courses you will have a very brief reference to the laws regarding dicrimination, but that is about it. You will find the same in most contracts of employment as well.

As a manager you employ the best people you can afford as your career progression and bonuses depend on their performance. As a worker you want to be with people who pull their weight as your bonuses and pay rises depend on your performance as a team.

I guess it would be unusual to find a diverse workforce as a problem in environments that require technical skills. It is difficult enough to get skilled workers at a price you can afford if you are in the manufacturing or retail sectors, because you are competing against the finance and service industry sectors, who can afford to pay more.

This gets worse if you are in education, healthcare and government, as they have very rigid (low) pay structures. In the UK healthcare is mostly government run.

I do recall asking an Indian co-worker why the "Fire Exit" sign seemed much longer in asian languages, he replied: "Ours says stand where you are and wait for instructions from the nearest white man"

The closest I have come to seeing it as an issue is when I was working in Belgium. There is no love lost between the Flemish and Waloon communities. To an outsider such as myself, they all look the same and appear to have the same culture...............the only difference is one lot speak a Dutch dialect and the others a French one.

Anyways, you Yanks shouldn't be having "diverity training"............you should be having Latin lessons...........then you might understand what "e pluribus unum" means

I just wanted to say thank you. For everyone who helped give examples of diversity in the workplace. The whole reason i asked so I could get some assistance with this project.

Explore a specific aspect of the role and function of diversity in your selected field or program area. Identify problems or controversial issues within your field related to diversity. Choose one of these problems/issues as the topic you wish to write about for your final paper. Identify the issue you have chosen as well as write a short, one-paragraph description of why you chose this particular topic.

I have written this assignment three times already now and my grade is a 0 not a "F" but a zero. Which I am happy she is even allowing me to redo the assignment again for the fourth time.

so if someone can give me some assistance with this would be greatly appreciated.

But could you please define what is meant by "diversity"............. from what dino said (I know he was being humorous), it is not how us lot understand it?

If you are scoring zero, then you cannot even be on topic?

You are right Nihil.I wasn't on topic. I did the assignment twice and got a 0% both times. So, this is what the Instructor is looking for:

For our purposes, "diversity" can mean many things in addition to the usage that applies to culture, race, religion, and gender. You can discuss diversity in ideas, opinions, tastes, styles, language, and/or ability. In addition, the essay must address in detail why a grasp of diversity is important today and will be important in the future.